Matthew 17:1-9

"Transfiguration" Sunday - Year A
Lent 2 - Year A

 


Some six days before this transfigurational scene we are told Jesus says, "There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in kingdom glory."

Sometimes we equate some final point with GOD's Power Enforced, excluding everything else, with a final form of a Kingdom of God. This transitional space of six days (a whole creation's worth of time) reminds us of the in-process nature of GOD and ourselves. "Let there be light," shines forth. And yet it is not a demanding light. It is a light that can be hidden until some later time.

Often this is seen as a scene of such power and glory that we are reinforced in our "worminess", overcome and squirming on the ground. We have just come off a rebuke to Peter about his hesitancy to affirm the trinity of going to suffer, dying, and rising. This could well be a reinforcement of that rebuke. "Silly old disciples," Christopher Robin might have said.

For today, at least, let us glory in a glory that doesn't have to Lord-It-Over another not at the same place we are. May we pass on the favor shown us as we encourage one another and others, to "get up and not be afraid."

- - -

Dave (reader)

This got me to thinking that the Kingdom of God is Being Built Now and in us. How does our day lived help others experience the Kingdom now and into eternity?

- - -

Lloyd (reader)

I no longer (if I ever did) find the Kingdom of God metaphor satisfying. There seems to be a lot of effort spent in telling us what the Kingdom of God is about, but little of it fits a kingdom metaphor. The image of God (or Christ) as King does not work for me.

- - -

Wesley (author)

Lloyd - I, too, struggle with imagery for a picture of what Walter Rauschenbusch called the "synthesis of all divine forces in humanity" or Ken Wilbur calls "deep spirituality." I'd appreciate your reflection on what you think the old language of "Kingdom of God" signifies for those who value it and how that significance might be translated or transformed for those to whom it simply doesn't compute.

- - -

Lynn (reader)

I know of other cultures that have reframed that language into "kin-dom" of God. For me, it becomes more relational, more horizontal than vertical, and more connected with one another and everything. An experience in which I know the Presence of God because relationship with one another is whole and full - we are "kin." Something that I know is "near" and also "not yet."

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html

 


 

When Moses came down a mountain he came with lots of words for the folks to form a single people out of a complaining lot. When Jesus came down a mountain he came with silence.

Three times the companions and infinitely more quiet.

This may be because Jesus could count on the words of Moses continuing to echo and he could play off of them to good effect.

This may be because Jesus knew that his way to relationship with GOD was altogether different than that of Moses and each situation needed its own care not a fitting into some panacea. This gets acted out as a first act after coming down. Issues of faith (Matthew), prayer (Mark), or action (Luke) seem not to be transformable into technique or doctrine. This particular healing needed a different approach than the disciples yet knew. I am sure they did their best to implement what Jesus had taught. The difficulty was in being able to take what they had learned and go beyond it. In some sense it is this "going beyond" that is the measure of learning, not simply measuring up to some standardized test.

One of the ironies in all this is that this process is very rabbinic. His own tradition of applying old rules to new situations did in his experience of needing new understandings for old situations.

This day will present an opportunity to test our "learning beyond" our course of study. Will we get up, unafraid, and risk testing our learning or not? I pray we will -- again, as we have before.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html

 


 

Get up, disciples! It is time to move from a knee-jerk reaction to worship what we don't yet know or to raise never-ending questions. Life needs living. Enough hiding your faces from the light in the cloud or the light in night.

I probably added this the last time we looked at this passage, but I just can't get enough of the note about verse 15 from The New Interpreter's Study Bible: "Eternal Life" does not speak of immortality or a future life, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God.

Eternal life is about beginning now to participate in GOD's presence. Incarnation and Transfiguration are about the possibility of new life, not judgment upon past life. Forgiveness and Grace are about moving ahead without getting stuck where we have been.

Fellow Nicodemites, let us begin our journey to move from inquiry to actual support of those accused by the prejudices of our culture to caring for those chewed by religio/politico structures to being an active organizer for justice for same.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html

 


 

You must be born from above.

From above we hear, "Beloved!"

How can this be? : Should we build three shelters?

Are you a teacher of Israel? : Are you disciples of mine?

To "?" comes "!".

GOD loves through bestowing a blessing of Belovedness and reveals eternity in the midst of lives. This is not limited, restrictive, or condemnatory, but salvific.

You might try this chant for a week and see what difference it makes:

I
I am
I am blessed
I am blessed, beloved
You
You are
You are blessed
You are blessed, beloved
All
All are
All are blessed
All are blessed, beloved
Enemies
Enemies are
Enemies are blessed
Enemies are blessed, beloved
Cosmos
Cosmos is
Cosmos is blessed
Cosmos is blessed, beloved

- - -

Dave (reader)

Wesley refers to technique, and it reminded me of J. Ellul's book on Technique, but I forgot what it was about. Can some one refresh my memory?

I wondered if there was a relationship between the two?
Thanks?

- - -

Dave (reader)

I found my own answer, but suggest that you look at the website of victorshepherd.on.ca, which is about J. Ellul and an excellent summary of his life.

Like Ellul, this website keeps me off balance and that makes me grow.

Keep up the good work, all who share here.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/february2005.html

 


 

This passage can be played against what, in another year, would have been the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, Matthew 5:38-48

A focus on Moses' appearance in Exodus is brought back to the content of Moses' encounter (Leviticus) on the mountain - Here's how to be holy, rather than here's what holy looks like.

Psalms 2 and 99 are again outwardly focused on causing trembling, if not blindness, in others. Psalm 119 here brings the issue to one's internal decision to act on one's understanding, rather than on naming another's source of vain plotting.

Peter has a leg up on prophetic messages. His experience trumps any other experience. Paul builds on a firm foundation in his fashion and others are encouraged to build according to their gifts. Is the faith hierarchical or communal? What is the place of the one with a spiritual gift of questioning or a baby in the faith or one in the midst of transition in their faith - subservient or welcomed?

The conversation Jesus has with Moses and Elijah (Mt 17) might be overheard with Jesus' comments about, "You have said, but I say" (Mt 5). This moment of shift is transformative in a person's life as they move to a next stage - transfiguring, even. When the new perspective comes, it becomes difficult to return to the prior picture with equanimity. A culture shift has occurred and this is a time of danger for the new vision. Fortunately transformative moments are ultimately irradicable and are confirmed in later resurrections into a new community.

- - -

buildings can break new ground
built on a new vision
they rise in new shapes
reflecting a new day

buildings can trap new ground
repeating an old vision
ticky-tacky on a hillside
restraining a new day

irrepressible Peter
reflecting restraining
needing yet a clear voice
assuring belovedness

from fearful restraint
comes a word to get up
to move beyond reflection
to practical healing

practice loving enemies
here lies new community
resist eye gouging
there lies old feuds

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html


 

Earlier in Epiphany we wondered where Jesus was staying, from what position might we get the best perspective to investigate the meaning of life. Having had some experience of traveling with Jesus, we've been waiting for an event that will coalesce all we have learned. Finally, a mountain-top experience to pull everything together and now we, too, can do an extended Sabbath rest.

We move from "Jesus, where are you staying?" to "Jesus, you must stay here!" We shift from visiting Jesus' space to building space for Jesus.

Always this desire for certainty, for stasis, for our structure. Each time we come to some such plateau there needs to be a holy shout in our ear – "Listen, just listen." When we settle enough to do so we, of course, hear, "Get up, get moving." In hearing this we wonder what we will take with us, what witness we will bear with us to barter against another's experience. And again we hear, "Take nothing for the journey – not even this moment with transcendent prophecy."

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

 


 

Six days after Peter's affirmation, "You are the Messiah", and denial, "God forbid you to suffer and die" (projecting his own and our resistance to these), Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to a high place.

High places can not only have thin air, but be a wilderness "thin place".

Remember the cycle of baptism --–> belovedness revealed --–> wilderness temptation? Here is an opportune time to revisit that previous wilderness temptation with Peter's rebuke/test (yes, a Lucan perspective, but apt nonetheless). Time to have a booster shot of belovedness previously revealed at baptism.

If the Jordan was a baptism by water, an unnamed mountain may be a baptism of spirit. I can't help but wonder if this story is a compilation of many such revelations of belovedness. Surely there was more than one rebuke/test that Jesus faced and subsequent need for remembrance of belovedness - perhaps this was part of those prayer retreats Jesus took.

At any rate, last week we heard the words, "Don't worry", and this week we hear "Don't be afraid". In both instances folks/disciples have forgotten the abundance of G*D and their ability to share beyond what they have at the moment. Choosing the Invisible Hand of G*D over the Invisible Hand of the Market has always been difficult. Choosing returning to work in every holy space of everyday life over designating shrines is equally difficult.

Blessings on your being able to tell real stories of your down-the-mountain work simply, without resorting to exceptionalist tales.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/02/matthew-171-9.html

 


 

belovedness got them

Jesus shines on the mountain
a beacon of belovedness

Peter says its good he's there
he can see that honor is given this place

he and James and John
could handle Moses and Elijah

what got them was belovedness
it knocked them off their feet

just hearing about belovedness
was more than they could bear

to pick them up again
belovedness touched them

get up - be not afraid.
its time to share more

hold your experience of belovedness
close to your heart - away from your mouth

explaining belovedness dilutes it
just live as though it were real

and so it comes to us
brag? faint? model belovedness?

modeling is the middle way
claim it - live it

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/03/belovedness-got-them.html

 


 

We are never by ourselves alone. This story starts with a sense of isolation.

Then: in the thin place of thin air a moment of deeper vision arises.

Often we think this is a matter of Jesus changing, when it is a time when Peter, James, and John catch something they were not able to do 6 days earlier. Earlier Peter scolds Jesus for dealing with a reality beyond Peter’s vision.

Now they see in another way. Transpose verses 2 and 3. Peter, James, and John caught a picture of Jesus connected with the past/future and not just in the moment that is so fragile and such a temptation to protect. This appearance of Moses and Elijah transfigures their vision of Jesus.

Such an experience, though, doesn’t remove our desire to maintain a breakthrough moment by institutionalizing it. However, it does make it possible not to get stuck there. Even as buildings are proposed to be raised they are about to be razed with a word that transforms—Beloved.

Imagine for a moment that this inclusive word does not separate Jesus from Moses and Elijah but connects Peter, James, and John with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Read “my Son” (sic) as “my Creation” that includes you.

Given our usual separation, dissection, and analyzing, this unitive moment is overwhelming and folks fall over.

“Get up. Forward.”

And when we look again we see another, yes, but cannot forget that they contain their past as well as the seed of who they will become. We see them and more than them.

This is not a tale that can be told without privileging oneself, but it can be remembered. Later, at an auspicious time, we can tell of this time and one more layer of connectivity will surface.

Remember your moment(s) of inclusive connection, of transformation. Apply what you remember to the dynamics of this passage. When the time is right—share.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/02/matthew-171-9.html